In the method for processing a silver halide color photographic material, the most stable and preferable continuous processing is that which maintains the original photographic properties at all times during the processing. At continuous processing, the processing is generally carried out while constantly replenishing a replenisher in a certain amount per unit area of the photographic material to be processed. However, the preciseness of replenishing pumps being used in the replenishment is not perfect, and it is often observed that over-replenishment or under-replenishment is made, causing fluctuation of photographic properties.
Also, at continuous processing, sometimes contamination by undesired other processing solution happens occurs. In particular, when a color developer is contaminated with a solution having a fixing function (e.g., a bleach-fix solution or a fixing solution), since the silver halide in the photographic material is dissolved, photographic properties are changed considerably, sometimes making the production impossible. In many cases such contamination takes place when the solution is prepared or when the apparatus has a problem.
On the other hand, in comparison with conventionally used pyrazolone magenta couplers, pyrazoloazole magenta couplers, such as pyrazolotriazoles, have the advantage that the hue and the image preservability are excellent. For example, pyrazoloazole couplers are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,540,654 and 3,725,067. They are, however, relatively susceptible to the above fluctuation of processing, and a technique to solve this problem is desirably sought.
Thione compounds represented by formula (I) of the present invention are described in JP-A ("JP-A" means unexamined published Japanese patent application) No. 114538/1984 and are used in the DTR (diffusion transfer reversal), development process, which is intended to obtain high sensitivity, high contrast, and high sharpness. On the other hand, the present invention relates to a conventional color image forming system that comprises processing a photographic material comprising a negative emulsion with a color developer comprising a p-phenylenediamine developing agent, followed by desilvering. The present invention uses a p-phenylenediamine developing agent in a color developer in order to improve the stability with continuous processing, and since it is used in a system different from the former and its effect is different, the present invention cannot be inferred from said reference.
Although U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,043 discloses a technique that uses special thiols or thiones as antifoggants, it is a technique for preventing fogging of black and white development. The document does not refer to the stabilization in color development at the time of continuous processing at all, and thus the present invention cannot be inferred from the description of the document.